Ship-Free Saturday (Proposition #2) on the Oct. 1 municipal ballot, is an attempt by a group of residents including me, who want to have one day a week free from the chaos of cruise ship tourism. I’ve been dealing with tourist traffic through my neighborhood for over 30 years and longtime readers of the Juneau Empire opinion columns are probably as tired as I am of my ineffective rants asking the Assembly to do something about it.
I have not been alone over the decades in dealing with cruise ship tourism issues, but as the growth of the industry has exploded in recent years our small band of protesters is growing. In fact, the more the industry grows, the more neighborhoods in Juneau are affected by the sheer numbers of tourists, vehicles, aircraft and vessels. The Auke Bay area is heavily affected by whale watching, charter fishing, sightseeing vessels and the heavy vehicular traffic that carries cruise visitors to Statter Harbor. Residents’ beautiful homes are bombarded every day with helicopter noise reminiscent of the sound effects of the movie “Apocalypse Now.”
The Shrine of St. Therese is so overwhelmed by cruise visitors that residents who are there to inter the ashes of their loved ones have had their ceremonies interrupted by curious, noisy tourists disrupting their remarks. North Douglas drivers must beware of e-bike and Segway riders, and sports fishers must take care around fleets of kayak tours. Soon there will be more traffic in that area when the city finally installs the gondola.
And of course the Mendenhall Glacier area is a complete disaster during the cruise ship season, and millions of our federal tax dollars are soon to be spent expanding tourism facilities so the foreign-flagged, non-U.S. tax-paying cruise industry can make even more money cramming in even more cruise visitors to see the glacier before it completely disappears in part because of the heavy bunker fuel the cruise ships burn.
In May 2024, the CBJ signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the cruise lines to limit port calls in 2026 to a maximum of 16,000 passengers a day from Sunday through Friday, and 12,000 passengers on Saturdays. While the city claims the MOA is a step forward, as I read the language of the MOA, one could steer a cruise ship through it: “The parties recognize that present circumstances can and will change, and thus enter into this MOA (as compared to a formal legal contract) as a statement of intent to work to address the issues related to cruise ships, tourists and tour operators raised by the VITF in hopes of flexibly and creatively meeting the parties’ shared goals, while acknowledging the complex logistics of operating the Cruise Lines’ activities.”
I don’t for one minute think the Swiss cheese MOA the City and Borough of Juneau signed will stop the cruise industry from increasing the number of vessels and tourists that visit here. This global behemoth of an industry will have its way with Juneau, just as it has for the last several decades unless we the people do something. Our Assembly has demonstrated for years that they will not, as well-intentioned as many of the members have been.
Those of us who collected signatures to put this proposition on the ballot did so because we love living in Juneau. We’re paying higher property taxes than ever before, we pay sales tax and federal tax, we buy locally whenever possible. We are good citizens and good neighbors. The explosion of cruise tourism is destroying our quality of life, and we want one day off a week to just breathe. If your neighborhood and quality of life are affected by the chaos of cruise ship tourism, take one small step to limit it. Vote yes on Proposition 2.
• Kimberly Metcalfe is a lifelong Juneau resident who has been actively trying to limit large cruise ship tourism for over 30 years because of the traffic through her downtown neighborhood.
